Hosiery fabric



March 15, 1938. A. F. VE RBEEK 2,111,255

HOS IERY FABRIC Filed Dec. 31, 1955 INVENTOR. Grnold Friedmich Ve r b e e h Patented Mar. 15,, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE HOSIERY FABRIC Arnold Friedrich Verbeek, Oberlungwitz, Germany, assignor to Kaliollnc... New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application December 31, 1935, Serial No. 56,887

ll Claim.

the welt at the point at which the garter is attached. To prevent such runs from extending into the leg of the stocking it has been customary to provide one or more courses of lock stitches immediately beneath the welt made by transferring loops from one needle to another by means of the picot bar, for example. Such courses will prevent runs caused by garters or from loops dropped during welt turning but they have the disadvantage of being relatively inelastic, which is objectionable and in itself maybe the cause of runs since this inelasticity renders such courses more likely to break under strain.

The primary object of this invention is to provide a run stop course or area immediately below the welt which is free of the disadvantages above mentioned. This object is accomplished by interweaving into one or more courses an elastic weft thread which is so associated with the interlocked loops as to substantially prevent the movement of one thread upon the other thus confining runs to the area above.

The fabric described is shown diagrammatically in the drawing, of which Figure 1 illustrates diagrammatically the welt and adjacent part of the leg of a stocking blank provided with a single elastic run stop weft thread;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged cross-section of the fabric of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a similar diagrammatic view in which two courses of elastic weft thread are included;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged cross-section of the fabric of Fig. 3; and

Fig. 5 is an enlarged view of a fragment of fabric showing a preferred manner of inserting the elastic thread.

As shown in Fig. 1 the elastic weft thread I is inserted a short distance below the junction 2 of the welt 3 and leg 4 of a stocking blank. Also it terminates at eitherend at a point inside of the extreme edges of the fabric as shown at 5 and 6 so that it will not interfere with or be damaged by seaming. The elastic thread may be inserted in any desired way but preferably in the manner and by the method described in my copending application No. 3,892 filed J'anuary 29, 1935. When this method is followed the fabric shown in Fig. 5 will result. It will be noted from Fig. 5 and Figs. 2 and 4 that the elastic thread passes through the sinker loops 1 and over the connecting needle loops 8 so that it appears only upon the back 9 of the fabric, the silk or other yarn only showing upon the face ll] of the fabric. Therefore, the elastic threads will be relatively inconspicuous and will also be protected from. abrasion. The fabric of Figs. 3 and 4 differs from that of Fig. 1 only in that the'elastic thread t is interwoven in two courses instead of 'one which may be adjacent or separated by one or more courses of plain fabric.

The close association between the rubber thread and the sinker and needle loops of the fabric as shown in Fig. 5 and the tendency of the rubber thread to cling to the yarn will result in a substantial locking of the needle loops of one course with the sinker loops of the following course so that it will be extremely difficult for a run starting above the elastic thread to progress beyond it. Thus an efiective run stop course or courses is provided without impairing the elasticity or durability of the fabric.

Another valuable feature of this fabric is that the diameter of the elastic thread will be decreased at the points at which it is engaged by the yarn of the loops and will be correspondingly increased on either side of each of these points Consequently, the elastic thread is held against longitudinal movement quite securely. This is particularly true if the elastic thread happens to break. Then the decreasein tension will cause a still greater increase in the diameter of the thread except at points of engagement with the yarns, which will make it even more difficult for the elastic thread to slip endwise through the loops. Therefore, even though the elastic thread does happen to break, its tendency will be to remain in its substantial position, and not to slide through the loops for any substantial distance, with the result that even breakage is not likely to impair the run-resisting course to any great degree. Furthermore, since the elastic thread does not form a part of the loop structure, but is merely interwoven through the loops, breakage of the elastic thread has no effect upon the continuity of the fabric loops.

What I claim is:

A full-fashioned fiat knit stocking composed of conventional interlinked yarn loops and having in the leg adjacent the lower edge of the welt a run-resisting element composed of an elastic thread passing through the sinker loops of one course and behind the needle loops of the adjacent course interlinked therewith so that it is compressed between the yarn of said loops and is consequently of smaller diameter at those points than elsewhere with the result that in case of breakage of the elastic thread it will tend to be held against longitudinal movement by the reluctance of the sections of larger diameter to pass the points where the elastic thread is compressed between the yarn of said loops.

ARNOLD FRIEDRICH VERBEEK. 

